A tiny election committee, drawn mostly from Hong Kong’s elite, will choose the city’s next leader Sunday, amid planned protests and a large-scale police operation.
Around 1,800 police officers are expected to be deployed, 600 more than the number of voters they are protecting.
Hundreds of protestors gathered early Sunday outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, where votes are being counted, to call for universal suffrage in Hong Kong.
Organizers admitted numbers were lower than they had hoped.
A spokesman for the Civil Human Rights Front, which organized the protests, originally said on Friday they expected several thousand people to take part.
What happens?
The 1,194 person election committee — 0.01% of Hong Kong’s 7.3 million population — will cast ballots at 9 a.m. local time (1 a.m. GMT), according to the government, with an announcement expected around midday.
The committee is described as “broadly representative,” but is dominated by pro-establishment voters, who are expected to follow the wishes of the central government in Beijing.
If there is no outright winner in the first round, a second round will be held between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Hong Kong time. If needed, a third round will be held in the early evening.
To win, a candidate must receive a majority of the 1,194 votes that can be cast.
The winner will be sworn in for a five year term as the next Hong Kong Chief Executive on July 1.
Who’s in the running?
Three candidates are standing to be the next leader: Carrie Lam, John Tsang and Woo Kwok-hing.
Woo, a 71-year-old retired judge seen as a moderate candidate independent of both the pro-establishment and pro-democracy political camps, is not expected to garner much support.
A grouping of pro-democratic electors, D300+, said this week that it would throw its support behind Tsang, who has maintained a consistent lead in the polls.
Tsang, a former financial secretary, is popular with the public, but faces a hard task if he is to overtake Lam, who entered the race with 572 nominations, close to the required total.
Previously deputy leader under current Chief Executive CY Leung, Lam is seen as Beijing’s choice to succeed him, but her popular support has flagged after a series of gaffes.
While nominations to enter the race were public, the ballot Sunday will be secret, and some commentators have predicted that Tsang may steal some of Lam’s support.